Australia Cost of a guinea pig?

Im not sure, but i think the rspca would probably give you one for free (we don't actually have a rescue center in my town, all the pigs that are dumped go straight to a pet store after a check up and are sexed correctly by a vet, tis the joy of living in a tiny country town that regards them as nothing better than rats)

Like i said, I doubt whether you would have to pay anything at all, but if you don't have to pay, it would be nice to give them a donation anyway as they do do a lot of good work (most of the time anyway)

Whatever you do, do NOT get him/her from a breeder, it might take a while for a pig of the right sex to come up at the rspca but it's always best to rescue one, rather than buy one from a breeder who's getting rid of it because it's colours aren't right.

csharpmajor said:

Oh and I called a bunch of breeders and they basically all told me to go to this show on April 1st. Since I'm not really looking for a show quality pig do I reeaaally need to go there? (It's kind of far away.) Should I call them back?

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Please don't buy from a breeder. If you give us your zip code we can help you find homeless GPs in your area.

You can also try looking at the SPCA or calling up exotic vets in your area to see if they have any GPs for adoption.

The problem with the RSPCA is I called them and from the sound of things they don't get a lot of guinea pigs :\ So if I go that route I dunno how long I'll be waiting, or if I'll get one at all.

I'm not feeling too sure about the breeders either to tell the truth. I read that they're better but then I read one of their newsletters where this lady was talking about breeding tortoiseshells and she said one of the best things was you could tell if they were any good right from birth and if not you could "make a pretty penny selling the wasters to pet shops" or something like that. I was like WHAT?! Besides, my first pig looks like a mismarked tortie, I wonder if he could be from her... >_>

EDIT: Oh, and I live in Perth, Australia. I dunno if that helps you any if you live in America though.

drat, i live in Victoria (the Australian version of it). You could try googling it, guinea pigs for adoption perth or something like that, might put you onto some people who do rescues in your area. Or there might even be some aussies in your area on here that do rescues or know of someone that does do rescues.

I am sure that someone can help you track down a pig. Try calling back the RSPCA and see what "that often means". It may mean only a couple pigs a month, or a couple of pigs a year. Then, you will be in a better position to know how long you will be waiting.

Check free classified ad's, and put yourself on the waiting list for a pig at any RSPCA, your local one, and any that you are willing to drive to. I know there are a few rescues in Austrailia, but I am not sure how far they are from you, it is a big country afterall! They may be able to help you find a closer pig though.

At the show, they will not be selling show quality pigs that much, it is a place they can "dump" the surplus pigs. With breeding, something like 85 -95 % are considered "terminal", meaning they are the "wastage", not good for show or breeding, so they have to find a place to unload them, or kill them. Most breeders are not so evil as to slaughter all the imperfect pigs, so they unload them. At shows, they set around with their vats filled with pigs, handingthem out for little cost to passer by's all caught up in the hype of the moment. It is common to get miss sexed pigs, pregnant females, and sick pigs out of these shows. Worse yet, those that are going home, holding onto a pig, realize once the get home, that they have to invest a ton of money into the animal, (cage, food, veggies, toys, hidey house etc) so, they will often dump it.

The show may be a good opportunity afterall. Not to get a pig from it, but to take in one that in a few weeks to a month, is unwanted again, by the new home that took it in. Try to keep an eye on further away classified ad's too, and I don't think you will be piggyless for long, with all this breeding activity in your area.

Good news (I guess...), I just called the RSPCA today to leave my phone number and they said this lady had 3 guinea pigs she was trying to give away! But they weren't being kept at the rescue which is why they said they didn't have any guinea pigs earlier I wanted to pick them up over the weekend but she sounded kind of desperate, saying they were 7 weeks old and she needed to get rid of them before they bred. Sigh. So I'm making my dad drive across town to get them tomorrow. Sorry Dad. lol

At seven weeks old the girls could already be pregnant, if they have been kept with males.
I would be really carefull here, unless you are taking a male, or ready for guinea babies!
Other then that congrats on finding another guinea pig

Hmmm... It sounds like if you have a pretty high chance of getting a mamma pig. I have a feeling you will have more pigs then you know what to do with in a couple months. I hope everything goes well.

Was this litter an accident? It sounds like she is not very knowledgable. I hope her mom pig is not pregnant again... Make sure you know how it goes!

Yikes, this is going a lot faster than I thought. My dad said he couldn't take me tomorrow evening because he wants to see a movie so I called up and asked if we could go today and, well, I got him! I was pleasantly surprised really, the hutch they were all living in was way too small (there were 4 babies, not 3, so 6 pigs in about 3 square feet of space) but she was keeping them well-fed and knew how to sex them. And she also said she had the boar neutered as soon as he got the sow pregnant. A little late but hey, hopefully she learned a lesson But I hope nobody else has fallen pregnant either :\

So I brought the unnamed little dude home and gave the two pigs about an hour to meet each other. Darcy RAN AWAY from Little Guy at first before figuring out that hold on, he was bigger and proceeded to chase Little Guy around the cage trying to mount him. But things settled down after a while, and I got some (broken link removed) :3 (I can't get Photobucket to stop resizing the picture for some reason; it wasnt over the size limit or anything ) The cage looks bare because it's not actually finished yet; I just put them there because it's neutral territory. After all, I didn't think I'd be getting another pig for another week at least. Oh, and I discovered Little Guy can slip right through the gaps between the bars even though they are SUPPOSEDLY too small and he is SUPPOSEDLY too old for that. Sigh. No hay rack for you until you're bigger!

I'm keeping the two separate tonight because I don't completely trust Darcy to not be a jerk and bully the poor thing, so Little Guy lives in a cardboard box for now >_> I'll put them together again in the morning and if they get along they can stay in the same cage tomorrow night.

And since I've resisted saying it for the whole post: OMG HE'S SOOOOOOOO CUTE! lol Thanks for all the advice, Cavies-and-Kids especially. If I hadn't called the RSPCA back who knows how long I'd still be waiting And I hope the remaining pigs find good homes too.

It's hard to understand. Did you get the neutered boar for your girl or one of the male babies? Please make certain that the boar is indeed neutered. Many people say that an animal is altered without them being so.

You should have quarentined them first (seperated totally for ~3 weeks) to make sure you don't spread illness but that's water under the bridge now. They have been introduced.

I recommend you do keep them seperated until you either talk to the vet the woman used to insure the boar is neutered or take your new boy into the vet for an exam and get confirmation that way.

Oh no, the boar was neutered but the baby isn't. It doesn't matter since Darcy is male. I probably should have quarantined him, whoops. He looks healthy though, and his cagemates too. He should be all right. I'll keep an eye on things.

Sorry, I thought I had seen you refer to Darcy as a "her" in one of your posts. My mistake.

Anyway, thanks for going the extra mile and adopting. You did good.

I am very happy for you. Just keep an eye on them to make sure they don't start fighting and need an intervention (ie, bloodshed)

Have you blocked the bars he is squeezing though?

What a great thing you did, and it just goes to show that if you leave no stone uncovered, homeless pigs can almost always be found!

It really does sound like this is an accidental litter. Hopefully Little Guy did not do any damage and more are not on the way!

I was surprised how easy it was really lol I thought it would be harder especially with the RSPCA saying they didn't have any guinea pigs at first.

VoodooJoint: Heh, lots of people think Darcy is a girl because I named him after Darcy from Pride and Prejudice but it's also... a girl's name >_>

Cavies-and-Kids: When I move them into the C&C cage I'll just take out the hay rack for now, because Little Guy isn't tall enough to get at any other exposed grids yet. I might put something over them anyway just to be safe...

I need to name Little Guy. Any suggestions?

Little guy sounds good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

have you got any photos of him?

Here: https://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=slides29gy.jpg

They're on slide film which is why I had to scan the film instead of the prints... they look good in real life but don't scan well at all. I think I'll take some regular pictures this weekend :3